Your business has a backend and a front end.
The front end is exactly what you’d expect: the part that faces customers. For physical businesses, this could be your shop floor, retail area, seating area or foyer. For online brands, this is your website, social media content and banner ads.
Your backend, however, is different. This is the non-customer-facing side, and it’s where you do all the heavy lifting.
For physical businesses, a backend is literally an area at the rear of your premises. For instance, it might be a loading area for trucks, complete with safety barriers to protect your buildings.
For online brands, backend usually refers to all of the complicated electronics, software and servers that make the operation possible. Backend can also refer to apps that employees use to serve clients, but that they never see.
Back-End And Front-End Businesses
Some businesses serve the back-end, while others serve the front-end. Back-end businesses tend to be B2B. For instance, these are firms that supply IT support, cybersecurity, cleaning services, or worker safety equipment. Consumers rarely if ever interact with these brands because they serve the needs of other firms, helping them to achieve their operational objectives.
Front-end businesses are more focused on the needs of consumers. They are trying to deliver final goods in the economy. They’re not just another supporting link in the supply chain.
However, don’t let this confuse you. Remember front-end businesses also usually have a back-end. That is, there’s often an area hidden from customers’ sight.
Walmart is a good example of this. The customer area of stores is well-present and lit up beautifully. The rear of the store, however, is often industrial, unattractive, and only offers the minimum level of amenities possible – perhaps a restroom.
Why Is The Back-End So Important?
Companies all over the world invest billions into their backends.
Take Amazon, for instance. The company barely turned a profit for the first twenty years of its existence because it was investing in ecommerce systems behind the scenes that would make it the most competitive player in the market. Profits were plowed straight back into robots in warehousing, advanced ordering and picking systems, and one-click payments.
Google has done something similar. The search engine home page you see doesn’t look very different from the same page twenty years ago. However, the magic is in what the search giant is doing behind the scenes. Today it is infinitely easier to find the information that you want online than it was in the past.
You could even make the case that back-ends are important for the economy as a whole. Without developments in efficiency and technology behind the scenes, companies wouldn’t improve their productivity, and society would stop moving forwards. It’s only because of changes at the backend that we can continue to enjoy improving living standards.
Conclusion
Once you understand your business’s backend, you’re often able to make more empowered decisions. Growth from front to back is often more sustainable and better for business in the long-term than the other way around.
